FROM A RINGSIDE SEAT

A call has gone out from the floor of the National Assembly that President General Pervez Musharraf should continue as army chief beyond the stipulated date of December 31, 2004 for surrendering this cap.
"The situation that Pakistan is faced with demands that President Musharraf should continue beyond December 31," said Ghulam Sarwar Khan of Taxila, a ruling coalition member, whose name is topping the list of ministerial hopefuls. It may be his gut reaction to the opposition's incessant criticism of the president, but circumstantial evidence says something else.
In an unusual development, against average 10-minute time allotted to each member during the last five days, Sarwar Khan was given almost 45 minutes by the chair. Cat is out of the bag.
Of course one swallow does not make summer, but it does say that summer is coming. And, who could be more keenly aware of the impending change of season than the custodian of the house, Speaker Amir Hussain.
The opposition had never given him certificate of impartiality-in fact, it even tried to vote him out-but the way he conducted the Thursday proceedings of the National Assembly left no doubt in the belief that he too was not much worried about his chair's role of neutrality.
So much so that opposition member Tehmina Daultana asked Amir Hussain to dress himself in a general's uniform and the cabinet ministers too should wear military uniforms and pin badges of loyalty to General Musharraf on their shoulders.
The confrontation in the parliament that was wearing out in the wake of adoption of the LFO, as 17th constitutional amendment, seems to be returning.
There was also a walkout by the opposition as protest against the speaker because he did not let Imran Khan take the floor on the presidential address, after he had been invited by Amanullah Khan Jadoon, who was the presiding officer for a short while, when Amir Hussain was away.
Soon after the question hour, the house took up the calling attention notice filed by five Fata members on the Wana operation.
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat made the opening statement giving a brief account of the run-up to the military operation, accusing the tribesmen of backing out from the commitment to surrender foreign terrorists. In the operation on Wednesday 16 men of the Frontier Corps and 24 terrorists were killed, he said.
The Fata members fiercely contested his account and said the operation was launched much in advance of the deadline.
There was also an exchange of harsh words between the minister and one of the movers, Maulana Mirajuddin. The speaker, later, expunged a big part of this exchange.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman made a scathing attack on the government, asserting that even Prime Minister Jamali was not consulted on the Wana operation.
He demanded that the house should set up a committee to look into the Wana operation, but the Interior minister turned down that plea and accused the tribesmen of providing safe havens to the terrorists.
"Jehad terminated fifteen years ago. Did these foreigners come here to wage Jehad or make marriages?"
At this, Mehmood Khan Achakzai got up saying that the interior minister misinformed the house by saying 16 FC men were killed in the operation when in fact the number exceeded fifty.
Later, he submitted a privilege motion that his privilege to be told truth about the operation was violated by Saleh Faisal Hayat.
Though Ghulam Sarwar's speech in defence of presidential address was the longest and also quite full-throated but there was no serious follow-up, except for M P Bhandara's provocative exposition to the great annoyance of the opposition, particularly the MMA.
Supporting President Musharraf's advice to shun religious bigotry he claimed that while Mahatma Gandhi backed the Khilafat Movement, Quaid-e-Azam did not.
The minority member also read out a part of the Quaid's famous address of August 11, 1947: You are free to go to your places of worship.
"Sometimes in 1972 or 73 I took this speech to Maulana Maudoodi and asked him do you accept it. I waited one hour for his answer but it did not come. Today, if I ask the same question from Qazi Hussain Ahmad a straight answer will not come. But I am waiting for the reply...Musharraf is following the Quaid-e-Azam," said Bhandara.
Then he trained his guns at Dr A Q Khan, and suggested that nuclear proliferation confessed by the scientist can result in the manufacture of a dirty bomb which terrorists can use.
"I say no other son of his mother committed a crime more heinous than Dr Khan...There is documentary evidence that he sold the secrets for hundred million dollars." With a taunt abounding in his words he said no doubt our atomic bomb averted two wars with India "but Qadeer Khan had no role in it." His conclusion: "Anybody who cannot follow the roadmap given by Quaid-e-Azam should go to Afghanistan or Iran."
Isn't it a strange paradox that President Musharraf's address to the joint session of parliament, which was supposed to restate the commitment to national unity, has rent asunder the parliament like nothing else? It has also tested the neutrality of institution of speakership.